Best of the Best

Feedback (Best of the Best series)

Isabella Wallace, Isabella Wallace, Leah Kirkman

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781785831874
• eBook ISBN: 9781785832437
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Feedback, Isabella Wallace and Leah Kirkman explore our understanding of what is often cited as one of the most powerful tools for enhancing learning, drawing together ideas from leading international thinkers and practical strategies for busy teachers. The Best of the Best series brings together for the first time the most influential voices in education in a format that is concise, insightful and accessible for teachers. Keeping up with the latest and best ideas in education can be a challenge as can putting them into practice but this new series is here to help. Each title features a comprehensive collection of brief and accessible contributions from some of the most eminent names in education from around the world. In this second volume in the series, Wallace and Kirkman have curated a collection of inspiring contributions on the theme of feedback and have developed practical, realistic, cross-curricular and cross-phase strategies to make the most of these important insights in the classroom. Feedback can be understood and implemented in the classroom in a whole range of ways, as Wallace and Kirkman's practical strategies based on the contributors' expert insights demonstrate. From these contributions, each unique and enlightening in its own right, a number of key themes emerge. One is the need to get the balance right between praise and constructive critique by keeping feedback specific, detailed and firmly referenced to clearly explained criteria. Another is that these same principles should be applied whether the feedback is from teacher to student, teacher to colleague, student to teacher or student to student. Response to feedback is critical: the need to give students the time to reflect on it, to question it, to act on it. Also important is the manner in which feedback is given: kindly, constructively, in a timely way and in an atmosphere of trust. Above all, whether written or oral, effective feedback is primarily about is clear, constructive and specific communication. Each expert has provided a list of further reading so you can dig deeper into the topic. In addition, the Teacher Development Trust has offered more useful ideas for embedding these insights as part of CPD. Suitable for all educationalists, including teachers and school leaders. Contributions include: Professor Dylan Wiliam Formative assessment: the bridge between teaching and learning; Arthur L. Costa and Robert J. Garmston A feedback perspective; Professor Bill Lucas Feedback or feedforward?; Diana Laufenberg Finding time for feedback; Paul Dix Wristband peer feedback; Taylor Mali The sound of silent tears of pride; Ron Berger Critique and feedback; Andy Griffith Receiving feedback; Professor Barry Hymer Praise and rewards: danger handle with care; Jackie Beere OBE How can failure help you grow?; Mike Gershon Target implementation time; Professor Mick Waters Reward points for teachers; Geoff Petty The quality learning cycle: feedback for significant progress; Shirley Clarke Getting underneath the understanding and acting on it; Seth Godin The four rules of peer feedback; Phil Beadle Shut up, coach!; Teacher Development Trust Next steps

CHAPTER 1

FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT:

THE BRIDGE BETWEEN
TEACHING AND LEARNING

PROFESSOR DYLAN WILIAM

PROFESSOR DYLAN WILIAM is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London. After seven years of teaching in London schools, he joined Chelsea College, which later became part of King’s College London. In a varied career, he has trained teachers, managed a large-scale testing programme and served a number of roles in university administration. He has written over 300 books, articles and chapters, many with his long-time colleague Paul Black. His most recent books are Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms (with Siobhán Leahy, 2015) and Leadership for Teacher Learning (2016).

Formative assessment is at the heart of good teaching because of one principle about learning and one uncomfortable fact about the world. The principle is that good teaching starts from where learners are, rather than where we would like them to be. The uncomfortable fact about the world is that students do not learn what we teach. Put these two things together and the need for formative assessment is clear. We need to find out what our students have learned before we teach them anything else.

Of course, the fact that students know something today does not mean they will know it in six weeks’ time – as Paul Kirschner reminds us, learning is a change in long-term memory (Kirschner et al., 2006). But if they don’t know something today, it is highly unlikely they will know it in six weeks’ time. Formative assessment is based on the simple idea that it is better to know what is going on in the heads of our students than not.

Some people argue that the term ‘formative assessment’ is unhelpful – this is, after all, just good teaching. But the use of the word ‘assessment’ draws attention to the quality of evidence the teacher has for the decisions that need to be taken. If you are only getting answers to your questions from confident students, you can’t possibly make decisions that reflect the learning needs of the whole class. And, of course, once you find out what your students have learned, you need to provide feedback to the students that helps them to move their learning forward, rather than just telling them what’s wrong with their existing work. After all, the purpose of feedback is to improve the student, not the work they have just done.

And this means a fundamental shift in perspective, from looking at what the teacher is putting into the process to what the students are getting out of it. As one teacher said, it’s all about making the students’ voices louder and the teacher’s hearing better.

FURTHER READING

Black, Paul, Harrison, Chris, Lee, Clara, Marshall, Bethan and Wiliam, Dylan (2003). Assessment for Learning: Putting It Into Practice (Buckingham: Open University Press).

Kirschner, Paul A., Sweller, John and Clark, Richard E. (2006). Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching, Educational Psychologist 41(2): 75–86.

Wiliam, Dylan (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment (Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree).

Wiliam, Dylan (2016). Leadership for Teacher Learning: Creating a Culture Where All Teachers Improve So That All Learners Succeed (West Palm Beach, FL: Learning Sciences International).

Wiliam, Dylan and Leahy, Siobhán (2015). Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms (West Palm Beach, FL: Learning Sciences International).

PRACTICAL STRATEGIES

Dylan Wiliam emphasises the importance of establishing what learners already know and of seeking accurate evidence about their understanding as lessons unfold. These layers of information help a teacher to do two crucial things: first, plan for new learning to occur and, second, provide feedback to learners that is targeted precisely at moving them forward.

GOOD TEACHING STARTS FROM
WHERE THE LEARNERS ARE

Make a habit of establishing what the learners already know or can already do before you plan how to teach them. Once this baseline has been established you can compile a list of what the students need to learn in order to move forward. Using the pupils’ own questions about their work can be useful here.

Instead of using a simple test to establish current levels of understanding, try revealing pupils’ thinking by having them generate their own test questions. This is likely to give you valuable insight into what you and they need to do next to improve their grasp of the topic.

FINDING OUT WHAT OUR
STUDENTS ARE LEARNING

As Dylan Wiliam points out, it is important to acknowledge that what we have taught pupils is not necessarily the same as what they have learned! Try some of the following ideas for seeking feedback about the impact of your teaching during the lesson itself.

Instead of eliciting answers from one pupil at a time or assessing only the learning needs of those who volunteer, use one of these techniques to seek feedback from and require involvement from every member of a class:

Ask the learners to write their answers on mini whiteboards and hold them up for your scrutiny.

Ask the learners to hold up lettered cards to indicate their selected answer to multiple choi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• PRAISE FOR FEEDBACK
• TITLE PAGE
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1: FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
• CHAPTER 2: A FEEDBACK PERSPECTIVE
• CHAPTER 3: FEEDBACK OR FEEDFORWARD?
• CHAPTER 4: FINDING TIME FOR FEEDBACK
• CHAPTER 5: WRISTBAND PEER FEEDBACK
• CHAPTER 6: THE SOUND OF SILENT TEARS OF PRIDE
• CHAPTER 7: CRITIQUE AND FEEDBACK
• CHAPTER 8: RECEIVING FEEDBACK
• CHAPTER 9: PRAISE AND REWARDS:
• CHAPTER 10: HOW CAN FAILURE HELP YOU GROW?
• CHAPTER 11: TARGET IMPLEMENTATION TIME
• CHAPTER 12: REWARD POINTS FOR TEACHERS
• CHAPTER 13: THE QUALITY LEARNING CYCLE:
• CHAPTER 14: GETTING UNDERNEATH THE UNDERSTANDING AND ACTING ON IT
• CHAPTER 15: THE FOUR RULES OF PEER FEEDBACK
• CHAPTER 16: SHUT UP, COACH!
• CHAPTER 17: NEXT STEPS …
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